Oxfam Coldplay Tour Blog 2010

<3 NOLA

Hello all! Here’s one from yesterday that I had to abandon mid-way after opting to pass out in my bunk…

I’m sitting in the our crew room writing to you all as my roadie pals bask in the glorie of the Pens’ winning the Stanley Cup; remember when we were in Pittsburgh and the audience chanted, “Go Pens!” until Chris had to stop and ask what they were saying?  

Tonight, like most nights in arenas, the crew room where we check our email and such is a locker room with drapes covering the perimeter of the walls. Matt the video guy and the man behind the “magic balls” has spent a significant amount of time explaining what the English refer to as a “geezer.” I’m settled on “the English equivalent of dude,” but he’s proceeded to explain the meaning of geezer is “the type of bloke to say ’sorted me ol mucker’ to someone.” No comment…

This week started with two days off in New Orleans. It was a much-needed chance to unwind after 3 straight shows. Being a fan of casual biking, I decided I would rent a bike and use it as my mode of transportation for the New Orleans sight-seeing. 

A couple of my bus-mates, Marta and Piers, were excited by the idea and joined along and we had a lovely day of riding along the Mississippi, through the French Quarter, and, well, on Bourbon Street as well. Nothing made me happier than to hand the valet at our fancy hotel the key to my bike lock and say, “Take care of her for me.” 

Besides being able to reconnect with the city I fell in love with on a trip with my girl Z, it was a chance to visit the Oxfam New Orleans Regional Office. There I met Field Representative, Ilana Scherl, who talked to me about the human face of climate-related disasters in the Gulf Coast. She told me about how disasters like Hurricane Katrina exacerbate pre-existing conditions of poverty and how they are increasing in severity and frequency due to climate change. 

She explained how disasters- from evacuations, to the property loss and excruciating process of reoccupying evacuated areas- are harder for the poor communities than any other. 

When I toured the 9th Ward, the poorest area of New Orleans, I saw evidence of reoccupied homes as well as homes in various stages of reconstruction, often with FEMA trailers parked right along side them.

But mostly, I saw empty lot after empty lot. I learned then that only 15% of people evacuated from the 9th Ward have been able to return, and that 1000 of the 1836 deaths in New Orleans occurred in the 9th Ward. The most moving thing I saw were the homes with holes in their roofs. They were punched out by people escaping the rising water in their attics.

When I toured the area surrounding the Louisiana Super Dome with Nancy, the Administrative Assistant at Oxfam’s local office, I couldn’t help but think about the choice between community and chaos the people of New Orleans had. I was moved by the stories of people who went from home to home on row boats during the floods to help remove people from their roofs. These were people who chose to come together as a community rather than succumb to crisis and chaos- much of which was happening at places like the Super Dome. 

As a global village, we are faced with the same choice with regards to climate change. We could come together as a global community and address the urgent problems at hand, or succumb to crisis and chaos. We can all do our parts; Oxfam works with community partners at the local level, governments adopt national plans that address climate change issues in their nations, the UN has funding mechanisms for those programs, and people like the Oxfam volunteers at the past 19 Coldplay shows since the beginning of the summer are doing their part. 

To learn more about how you can do your part,  check out www.oxfamamerica.org/climate.

xoxo from Bus 5 en route to Winnipeg, Canada, 

s 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 3:35 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.